The multiple facets of the ECB's monetary policy

This article analyses the evolution of the ECB’s monetary policy, dividing this into three periods – before the Great Financial Crisis, between this crisis and the COVID-19 crisis, and then in the aftermath of the latter – to consider, firstly, the mutable roles of monetary policy and, furthermore, the shifts that marked monetary policy strategy. Within this parallel movement, the aggrandizement of the ECB can be observed, assuming increasing tasks and roles clearly going beyond traditional money management matters reducible to the primary objective of price stability. The ECB has become a multi-tasker enhancing its mandate with general societal policy goals, including financial stability issues, managing climate change and equality. One conclusion is that there is space for a further increase, not only for technical and installed-capacity reasons, but also for substantial reasons related to the role played by the ECB in the recent crises, as an antidote to disintegration.